In addition to the permanent collection, the City Reliquary features temporary exhibitions. Other items are simply everyday objects, including a set of antique dentures washed ashore at Dead Horse Bay, a "very old shovel", and neon signs discarded by restaurants. Also on display is the rope that held the mourning drape on the New York City Hall balcony following the September 11 attacks.
Dave Herman’s collection of Statue of Liberty figures, which formed the original core collection, is also on view. Many items in the City Reliquary's permanent collection have some connection to historical events in New York, such as a shrine to Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers, memorabilia from both the 1939––65 New York World's Fairs and an interactive display relating the career of Little Egypt, a 19th-century burlesque dancer. The new museum opened on Apwith a ribbon-cutting ceremony and proclamation reading by Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President from 2002 to 2013. As the collection grew, Herman moved the repository to a location on Metropolitan Avenue. Passersby were drawn to the quirky array of local artifacts, and Herman received object donations and loans from people who wanted to share their own " relics" with the greater New York community.
The beginnings of the City Reliquary date to 2002, when founder Dave Herman began displaying objects in the windows of his ground-floor Williamsburg apartment on the corner of Havemeyer and Grand Streets.